Russians leave contaminated Chernobyl; Ukraine braces for renewed attacks

 Russian troops left the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear site early Friday after returning control to the Ukrainians, authorities said.

Russian troops left the heavily contaminated Chernobyl nuclear site early Friday after returning control to the Ukrainians, authorities said, as eastern parts of the country braced for renewed attacks and Russians blocked another aid mission to the besieged port city of Mariupol. Ukraine’s state power company, Energoatom, said the pullout at Chernobyl came after soldiers received significant doses of radiation from digging trenches in the forest in the exclusion zone around the closed plant. But there was no independent confirmation of that.

The exchange of control happened amid growing indications the Kremlin is using talk of de-escalation in Ukraine as cover to regroup, resupply its forces and redeploy them for a stepped-up offensive in the eastern part of the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russian withdrawals from the north and center of the country were just a military tactic to build up forces for new powerful attacks in the southeast…

Iran issues arrest warrant for Trump in relation to Qasem Soleimani’s death

Iran has issued an arrest warrant for US President Donald Trump over the drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January, CNN reported citing Iran's local media sources on Monday.

Iran has issued an arrest warrant for US President Donald Trump over the drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January, CNN reported citing Iran's local media sources on Monday. According to Iran's semi-official Fars news agency, Trump is one of 36 people whom Iran has issued arrest warrants for in relation to the death of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), but the Tehran attorney general Ali Alqasi Mehr said Trump was at the top of the list.

Mehr claimed that Trump would be prosecuted as soon as he stands down presidency after his term ends, Fars reported. Iran also said it had asked Interpol to issue a Red Notice for these 36 individuals, semi-official state news agency ISNA reported. \Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike at Baghdad International Airport in January along with five others, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

The strike, condemned by Iran and its allies as an "assassination," raised the spectre of further regional destabilization. A spokesman for Iran's judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, announced in early June that an Iranian citizen had been sentenced to death for allegedly working for foreign intelligence agencies. Esmaili claimed that Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd disclosed the whereabouts of Soleimani to US intelligence officials...Read More

US court grants Amazon motion for pause in Microsoft’s Pentagon deal

The Pentagon, which had planned to start work on the contract on Friday, said it was disappointed in the ruling.

A US judge on Thursday granted Amazon.com Inc’s request to temporarily halt the US Department of Defense and Microsoft Corp from moving forward on an up-to-$10 billion (£8 billion) cloud computing deal that Amazon says reflected undue influence by President Donald Trump.

Amazon, which had been seen as a front-runner to win the contract, filed a lawsuit in November just weeks after the contract was awarded to Microsoft. Trump has publicly derided Amazon head Jeff Bezos and repeatedly criticized the company. Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith issued a preliminary injunction but did not release her written opinion. She also ordered Amazon to post $42 million in the event the injunction was issued wrongfully.

The Amazon lawsuit said the Defense Department’s decision was full of “egregious errors,” which were a result of “improper pressure from President Donald Trump, who launched repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks” to steer the contract away from Amazon “to harm his perceived political enemy” Bezos. Bezos also owns the Washington Post, whose coverage has been critical of Trump and which has frequently been a target of barbs by Trump about the news media…

Amazon challenges Pentagon’s $10-billion cloud deal with Microsoft

The 10-year contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure program will see all military branches sharing information in a system boosted by artificial intelligence

Amazon has challenged the awarding of a USD 10 billion Pentagon cloud computing contract to Microsoft, alleging “unmistakable bias” in the process.

The 10-year contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure program, better known as JEDI, ultimately will see all military branches sharing information in a system boosted by artificial intelligence. “It’s critical for our country that the government and its elected leaders administer procurements objectively and in a manner that is free from political influence,” a spokesperson for Amazon Web Services said on Thursday.

“Numerous aspects of the JEDI evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias.” Amazon said it filed a notice in US court last week signaling its intent to protest the handling of the bidding process. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Amazon and company founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post. The newspaper is among US media outlets most critical in its coverage of Trump and his administration.

The president told reporters during a news conference in July that he had asked aides to investigate the JEDI contract, citing complaints from companies that compete with Amazon. “I’m getting tremendous complaints about the contract with the Pentagon and with Amazon. … They’re saying it wasn’t competitively bid,” Trump said. “Some of the greatest companies in the world are complaining about it, having to do with Amazon and the Department of Defense, and I will be asking them to look at it very closely to see what’s going on.”

ISIS still a threat, may seek vengeance post-Baghdadi’s death: US

The Pentagon also released video of airstrikes on a group of unknown fighters on the ground who opened fire on the helicopters that ferried US forces in for the assault on Baghdadi’s compound

A top American General has said the Islamic State is still dangerous and it could attempt a retribution attack after the killing of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US raid.

The head of US Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie, speaking to reporters after the Pentagon released video and photos of the US special forces raid that resulted in the death of Baghdadi, acknowledged that the terror group’s leadership may be disjointed and that it could take some time for it to recuperate, but that doesn’t mean it is not a threat. “ISIS is first and last an ideology so, we’re under no illusions that it’s going to go away just because we killed Baghdadi. It will remain, McKenzie said at a Pentagon news conference.

“They will be dangerous. We suspect they will try some form of retribution attack, and we are postured and prepared for that. But we should recognise that, again, since it’s an ideology, you’re never going to be able to completely stamp it out, he said. Among the images released by the Defence Department was a black-and-white footage of US troops approaching on foot the high-walled compound in northwestern Syria where Baghdadi was holed up.

The Pentagon also released video of airstrikes on a group of unknown fighters on the ground who opened fire on the helicopters that ferried US forces in for the assault on Baghdadi’s compound in Syria’s Idlib province. Responding to a question, McKenzie said, It will take them some time to reestablish someone to lead the organisation. And during that period of time, their actions may be a little bit disjointed.”

Pentagon releases footage of raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s hideout

The Pentagon also released video of airstrikes on a group of unknown fighters on the ground who opened fire on the helicopters that ferried US forces in for the assault on Baghdadi’s compound in Syria

The Pentagon on Wednesday, released a series of footages, depicting the complete US special forces raid that ended in the death of Islamic State (IS) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Among the images released by the Defence Department was grainy black-and-white footage of US troops approaching on foot the high-walled compound in northwestern Syria where Baghdadi was holed up.

The compound was razed by the US forces after the raid, leaving it looking like “a parking lot with large potholes,” said Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command. Releasing a few short videos of the strike, US Central Command Commander Gen Kenneth Mckenzie told reporters at a Pentagon news conference that after the raid, Baghdadi’s compound looked “pretty much like a parking lot with large potholes.” The compound was destroyed in a way to ensure that it would not become a shrine or memorable in any way. It’s just another piece of ground now, he said.

The isolated compound was located in Northwest Syria’s Idlib province

“We believe Baghdadi actually may have fired from his hole in his last moments. The other people that were engaged on the objective were behaving in a threatening manner with suicide vests approaching the raid force and that causes you to make some decisions, particularly when they don’t respond to Arabic language commands to stop, warning shots, and the progression of escalation that that our special operators are so very good at,” McKenzie said. Giving details of the operation, the American general said the US forces cleared significant debris from the tunnel and secured Baghdadi’s remains for DNA identity confirmation…

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pak chief Mullah Fazal Ullah killed in US drone strike

US military official has confirmed that an American drone strike targeted Mullah Fazal Ullah

 

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazal Ullah has been reportedly killed in targeted drone strikes conducted by the United States, a US military official informed the Voice of America (VOA).

Army lieutenant colonel Martin O'Donnell told VOA that counterterrorism strikes were carried out on June 13 in Kunar province which lies close to Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The officials further said that Mullah Fazal Ullah had directed numerous high-profile attacks against the US and Pakistan.

He had also conducted many other deadly attacks including December 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar that claimed lives of 151 people, out of which 130 were children.

Also Read :  US drone targeting Pakistani Taliban kills 21 TTP militants in Afghanistan

The US further underscored that it was Mullah Fazal Ullah who had ordered the 2012 attempted assassination of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.

The US Department for State offered a $5 million reward for Fazlullah in March soon after his son was killed in a US drone strike on TTP training facility.

The official said the status of Fazlullah was unclear.

Further, there was no confirmation, as of reporting time, from the TTP regarding the strike and reports of Fazlullah's death.

Read More : Mullah Fazlullah

US Prez Donald Trump to sign new travel ban order today: What to expect

Revised order expected to remove Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens face a travel ban

 

#COMPANIES | President Donald Trump is preparing to sign a revised executive order temporarily barring the entry of people from certain Muslim-majority countries and halting the nation's refugee programme.

A White House official says plans to roll out the order are on track for today. The official insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the order ahead of the official announcement.

The new order has been in the works since shortly after a federal court blocked Trump's initial effort, but the administration has repeatedly pushed back the signing as it has worked to better coordinate with the agencies that it will need to implement the ban.

Trump administration officials have said the new order aims to overcome the legal challenges to the first. Its goal will be the same: keep would-be terrorists out of the United States while the government reviews the vetting system for refugees and visa applicants from certain parts of the world.

Trump original orders temporarily blocked citizens of Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Libya from coming to the United States and put on hold the US refugee programme.

The revised order is expected to remove Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens face a temporary US travel ban for 90 days. That follows pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, which had urged the White House to reconsider, given Iraq's key role in fighting the Islamic State group.

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